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You could store all the data on the satellite, upload new code to process it differently, and download the resulting image. Then, the communications link just has to handle code (several MB up) and images (several MB down) instead of petabytes of data.

The launch mass of a petabyte of SSD is under 10 kg. I don't know if it would survive 17 years of space radiation though.

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Just as a thought experiment, would it be viable to send up an array of traditional hard drives? Arrange them all for use as reaction wheels, then spin them up to persist/de-stage data while changing/maintaining targets.

Probably worse than sending up well-shielded flash, but I don't think the Seagate/WD warranty expressly forbids this usage.

Well, you could.

I don't think I'd do that.

Ignoring the failure modes of a petabyte of SSD spending decades in deep space, what kinds of things are difficult and|or impossible if you were to

> store all the data on the satellite, upload new code to process it differently, and download the resulting image

?

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